Figure 1.--This unidentified English boy wars a collarless and sleeveless velvet dress. Notice the bows at the point where sleeves begin. Large white button extend down the front all the way to the skirt hem. There does not seem t be a waistline, but there is some kind of looped waist cord. The CDV is undated, byt looks to have been taken about 1870. The boy looks to be about 3-4 years old. The studio was R. Roberts Willson in Walworth (London).

The sleeves are the part of a garment that covers the arm or part of the arm. The arms passes or slipsthrough it, although in the shorter version very little of the arms are covered. The sleeves begin at the shoulders. There were various ways to deal with sleeves. Dress designers experimented with the various options. And thus shoulder treatment varied considerably. There were several different types of sleeves. There were various styles of sleeveless dresses. Most sleeves were done somewhere between the mid-upper arm and the wrist. Balloon or puff shoulders were very popular for children's dresses. The boy here has puff sleeves (figure 1). They were generally very short, but there were variations over time. This was a style very popular for younger children, but was at times also employed for women's dresses. There were also plain shoulders and sleeveless dresses. The sleeves were done in different lengths, basically short, elbow, forearm, and long. Here seasonality could be an important factor. The sleeveless and shorter lengths are popular for the summer while the longer lengths are used more for winterwear. The width of the sleeves also vary. They are done as narrow, wide, and full. Sleeve trends also varied chronologically. We see very wide sleeves in the mid-19th century. We see huge balloon sleeves popular for women in the 1890s. We do not yet have a large enough archive to develop these trends, but hope to eventually do so.

Created: 6:48 AM 6/15/2019
Last updated: 6:48 AM 6/15/2019